


Lifestyles of the Poor and Horny

by HerbertBest



Category: Good Game (TV 2017), Ninja Sex Party (Band)
Genre: Bad friendships, Crack, Growing Up, Healthy Choices, Humor, M/M, Phone Conversations, Romance, Running Away, Songwriting, Toxic Friendships, growing relationship, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 03:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17015262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerbertBest/pseuds/HerbertBest
Summary: A direct sequel to I Can't Believe My Eyes (You're the Boy of My Dreams); As Alex and Danny's relationship grows, the rest of eSports People move on without Alex.  As he returns to the fold he's horrified to notice how thoroughly he's been replaced and begins to wonder if his place is really with an incensed-on-his-behalf Danny.





	Lifestyles of the Poor and Horny

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fallenandscatteredpetals](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallenandscatteredpetals/gifts).



> Read the first fic in the series [Here!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14335236)

Maybe leaving home impulsively hadn’t been the best idea after all, Alex Taylor realized. He shouldered the small and neatly folded shirt and jeans he’d been wearing the night he went to a Ninja Sex Party concert two months before and hauled it with him for the two-block walk to his front door. Danny had bought him a couple of pairs of jeans and a few glittery tank tops, but outside of the whirlwind of the concert world, Alex admitted to himself as he caught a glimpse of his body in a storefront window, that he looked a little too much like Richard Simmons. 

He walked back home from the corner of his street where Danny and his band had dropped him off, even though they’d wanted to drive right up to the house he shared with Ryland, and he realized he’d gotten a little bit gamey between Germany and Las Cruces. Nothing a shower couldn’t fix. Then he’d order some pizza and call his dealer….

….And apparently get in touch with the police, because there was a very unfamiliar car parked in his driveway.

When he tried to call Ryland the phone rang off the hook. Of course. His best friend had been ignoring his calls for ages, and now Rylandwas probably being held for ransom! What would Alex do? And what would he wear on tv while begging for his best friend to be returned to him? 

He kicked the door in, but the sight before him

“Oh, it’s Alex,” said Ryland, without looking up from his computer, “hey, Alex.”

“Hey,” echoed Sam, Ash, Kamal and Lorenzo simultaneously. There was a guy with a pink Mowhawk sitting at the head of their practice set-up, and Alex had absolutely no idea who he was.

 

“I’m home!” Alex calledinto the silence. “There’s… a strange car sitting in the driveway. Um….who’s the new guy, if you don’t mind me asking?”   
“That’s Bo’s car,” said Sam.

“Yeah, Bo’s awesome,” said Kamal.

“Who..who’s Bo?” Alex asked.

“He’s our new coach,” explained Ash. 

“That’s Bo Unicorn,” said Sam. “When you didn’t show up for rehearsal, Ryland ended up looking for people to replace you.”

“I have a 4/1 win-loss average record,” Bo said. “And I come pretty cheap.”

“Only a couple hundred k an hour,” said Ryland, without looking up from his monitor.

“Boss,” said Ash.

“We didn’t know if you were coming back,” Ryland explained.

“He’s really good,” Sam said.

“We’re in the tournament.”

“The tournament?” Alex tried to remember if the next tournament was coming up and realized it was almost at hand. Qualifiers had to have been happening in May, when Danny was feeding him grapes on the Champs Elysees. “Jesus. Have I really been gone that long?”

“For months. I got your texts, didn’t answer them,” Ryland said.

And Alex thought he knew why. Ryland was a fan of silent rage, to contrast with his apoplectic infamy-inducing fits that made him a legend. He loved talking under his breath, loved the silent treatment – bitterness to contrast with Alex’s sugar-sweet kindness. He wished that Ryland cared about him as much as he cared about Ryland, but that was a quest that seemed to be forlorn and forever closed to Alex. Oh well. All he could do was keep being present and pleasant.

“Ryland hired someone else?” He sounded devastated. Felt devastated too, if he was going to be honest. He tried to blink through his tears to meet the dispassionate expressions of his friends, and he wondered why he was bothering to quietly process his intense emotions.

“Dude, if you’re going to cry go do it in the kitchen, you’re distracting from my mêlée!” Ryland said.

“I’m not going to cry!” Alex insisted. But he curled himself into a ball and checked his phone. Danny had gotten home; he and Ninja Brian were having a wonderful time together, sunning themselves out on the deck of their oversized spacenasium love palace. He’d do anything to be with them - with Danny, specifically.

Wasn’t that a strange thought? One he hadn’t expected to have, either. He’d thought Danny was going to be a one-off fling and that they’d have their time together and once the tour was over he’d be dumped back into his real life – into esports, pot, rock and roll, pleasing others and retail. But instead, all he wanted to do was go back on the road with Danny, where he’d felt useful, a part of something.

He waited until practice was over. For Ryland to turn toward him and say something, anything, to dispel the thick fog forming over the once steady surface of their friendship.

But Ryland turned away from the probing gaze Alex tried to pin him down with. “Dude, I had to do something,” he explained. “You were gone, the tournament was coming up – we couldn’t just stop training,” he said.

“I didn’t think you would, but maybe if you’d called me…?”

Ryland laughed bitterly. “You dumped me on the dance floor to go hang out with a rock God. Excuse me for getting bitter.”

“It’s not my fault he liked me better.” Alex curled his arms around his knees and tried to shoot what he hoped was a reproachful gaze at Ryland.

“He only liked you better because you look so much like him.”

“It’s not about that.”

“Isn’t it? Dude, it’s fucking creepy how much you look alike,” said Arin.

“Just because we do doesn’t mean that he picked me because we look alike. It means that he likes me in spite of the fact that we do.” He frowned. “I’m gonna go get something to nosh on. You want anything?”

Ryland shook his head. “I’m sorry, man. I promise, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Whatever, man.” Confronting Ryland wouldn’t be worthwhile. He’d save his ammo for another time, if he didn’t manage to forget it completely.

****

A few hours of solitude with his bong had left Alex wondering if everything he’d experienced with Danny was a hazy, far-off dream. Life with Danny felt that way – like a song or a poem that he had on the tip of his tongue, that had been sweet for a few seconds and then turned into a memory that was a sublime confusion.

A knock sounded on the bathroom door. “Are you like..covered up, man?” Ryland asked.

“I’m not taking a dump,” Alex said. The lock jostled and opened, and Ryland’s nose wrinkled, as the intensely concentrated scent of pot clouded around the two of them as if it had its own independent spirit. 

“I’m sorry for hiring somebody while you were gone,” said Ryland quickly. “I needed to make a move, and I didn’t know if you were going to come back. I like you, man, we’re always gonna be friends, but I had to do what was best with the team. Take things up a notch. Evolve.”

“Like a Transformer.”

“Dude, exactly,” Ryland said. “But that’s why I picked this guy. I hope you can understand. You don’t mind sitting the season out?”

Alex considered his words. “Um…I would’ve appreciated you saying something to me first, man.”

Later, he emerged from the bathroom and watched Ryland play. It was the first time in ages that he’d actually sat and enjoyed his technique from an outsider’s perspective, a friend’s, instead of a coach’s. So Alex curled into a ball until Ryland went to bed, then pulled out his phone and called Danny.

“Is he treating you like you should?” Danny asked.

“No,” Alex said, “but I’m used to it.”

“Don’t make me fly down from the moon and kick this guy’s butt, baby.” 

“Ryland’s my friend,” insisted Alex. “I don’t want him to be hurt.”

“Even after he did all of that crap to you? You deserve the best, Alex.”

“That’s nice of you to say, but I really don’t want anyone to get hurt on my account. And besides, all I want to do is talk things out with him in the end.”

“So you’re not really upset about being replaced as a coach?” Danny asked.

“I’m trying really hard to focus on the positive part of this, Danny.”

“What positive part?!” Danny asked. “The guy’s being a total loser dork in not telling you!”

“Danny!”

“Alex!”

“I like to focus on what’s right with Ryland,” he said.

“I know,” said Danny. “Just don’t do that to distraction. You’re gonna get yourself hurt if you keep doing that.”

“I promise, all right? I can handle myself.”

“I know you can. I saw you kick that groupie in the ribs when she tried to come at me with a knife.”

“About that - turned out it was just a bra she wanted you to sign. She got hurt really bad. Total humiliation on my part.”

“Huh. Well, I’ll make sure my attorney compensates her handsomely. And I still thank you for trying to help me out.”

Alex sighed. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too. Keep Skyping me, okay? We’ll figure something out.”

Alex didn’t quite know how, but he knew Danny – and knew somehow he would.

*** 

The days moved on. Alex started trying to grow legs of his own, now that he didn’t have the team to worry over. He did his best to try to put a band back together, then he went from job interview from job interview. Alex wouldn’t call this busywork, but he also wouldn’t call it living. That was why he started taking the practice time he would’ve used helping the team hone their skills to their utmost heights to sit alone in the backyard and compose.

The songs flowed from him slowly, but flow they did. About longing and need, crushes and flirtations. He wrote about how the clouds looked from the top of the mountain he and Danny had once hiked together. The smell of the English leather couch where they’d made love in a bookstore in Italy. With just a bass and his own self-belief, he managed to put everything together something that might just be a decent album.

Maybe. If Alex was lucky.

 

“So,” Alex said, “I’ve been writing a lot of songs lately, and um…I was wondering if you could listen to them?”

“No way! Finally?!” The springs of the bed upon which Danny had been sitting scrunched in joy as he bounded. “Play me anything, dude, I want to hear it all!”

It took Alex a minute to find the right song. “Here. I wrote this about you,” said Alex. And then acapella he sang a song about his eyes meeting Danny’s from across the room; their bodies swaying as one together through the distance, their beings meeting and joining. It was outrageously sappy and sweet, but it was exactly how Alex felt about Danny.

Danny was crying by the time Alex finished singing. Alex only realized he was crying too when he wiped his own tear away as it dripped down the bridge of his nose.

“You were totally crying.”

“I wasn’t crying!” Danny insisted. “Ninja Brian’s sautéing oranges again, and my eyes are stinging super hard.”

“Liar,” said Alex cheerfully enough.

“Yep! Total liar.”

“I can’t really be that good.”

“But you are. You’ve got a talent that’s as shimmering and golden as Marilyn Monroe’s hair.”

“Aww. Tell me more!”

There was a soft coughing sound right by his head that broke the mood. Ryland was still sitting on the floor before him. “Uh, no offense…but can you take that lovey dovey shit outside?” Ryland wondered. He’d been sitting on the floor, watching TV, while the conversation played out behind him.

“No,” Alex said. “I’m not paying for this apartment just as much as you’re not paying for it.”

Ryland sighed. “Whatever.”

“And how much time do you spend trying to screw around with Ash?”

“I don’t screw Ash! We make beautiful love,” Ryland said. His cheeks flushed dully and Alex felt a mean sense of triumph fill him. “And you’re jealous of us because you can’t go run and get your dick wet with Danny every five seconds!”

“And I don’t get my dick wet with Danny!” Alex said. “We make love, and it’s beautiful! Like two starships crashing into a manatee!” 

“Fine, dude. I don’t fuck Ash on our kitchen counter and I don’t expect you to fuck Danny on our couch. Just, like, respect me and shit, all right?”

“Hmm. Respect. Y’know what would’ve been respectful?” Alex’s voice was actually rising in volume, like a loaf of bread being violently proofed. “You giving me a call before hiring mister biceps man!”

“Uh, his name’s really Bo Unicorn….”

“That has to be a fake name! There’s no way in hell that’s his real name!”

“Alex!?”

“I’m sorry, but you’ve made me mad! So mad I might freakin’ blow my top!”

Ryland crossed his arms over his chest. “Fuck it, dude, I’m not going to pretend what you did didn’t hurt me.”

“I won’t pretend back,” Alex said. “Everything you did, ignoring the crap out of me while I was out there in the club – ignoring me for Ash – that hurts a whole hell of a lot.”

They stared each other down stubbornly. 

“I’ve got to get out of here,” Alex said. Funny, that was usually Ryland’s line. But the words poured forth from him, guttural and truthful. “I’m going to go out.”

“Don’t go to the bar,” Ryland said.

“I won’t.” He wanted to say something mean, like his developing sobriety from alcohol wasn’t worth risking. But instead he turned around and walked from the scene, leaving Ryland alone to sulk and feel as bad as Alex did.

But Alex looked back once or twice. He couldn’t resist. It was as if he were Lot’s wife, looking back just to watch the city burn.

***

He walked around town for hours, trying to figure out what to say and do. Fantasies of finally confronting Ryland over the whole thing flashed through his head, but he didn’t enact any of them. Instead he walked to the park and watched the seagulls dive bomb people for their popcorn and hotdogs. 

His stomach was rumbling. “Wow, I have a lot more in common with seagulls than I thought,” he muttered to himself.

That was when his phone started to vibrate. He checked the name – it was Danny. “Hey, babe.”

“What’s the matter? Is Ryland still being a total douche?”

“Sort of,” said Alex with a sigh. “He’s jealous of our relationship, I think.”

“If you want, I can totally beat him up. Or pinch him ‘til he cries! Or I can dissolve him with my ray gun. I take a guy named Ray and then I…”

“I think that’s a little harsh,” Alex said. He scratched down his scalp and let out a sigh. “I just don’t know why he didn’t wait for me….But he’s right and it was totally my fault. I mean I should’ve been home sooner and I should’ve called him more often. I should’ve told him that we were doing to be late getting back to LA. But I didn’t and they moved on without me.”

“Remember when you like, told me that you like focusing on what’s right with Ryland?”

“Yes?”

“Well, that was a whole lot of what’s actually wrong with Ryland. Good work, babe.”

“I…I did?” He hadn’t realized what he was doing until he was doing it.“I guess I did.”

“Damn right! No one kicks around my baby, and Ryland should realize that!”

“Thank you,” Alex said. “I just feel really bad. Ryland’s a really wonderful guy; a chap among chaps. A real fellow. I just don’t like it when he acts like I’m a twerp.”

“Yeah, you keep saying that,” Danny said. He had barely met Ryland – and naturally he thought the worst of the man who had been so very tough on his boyfriend.”

“You need to meet on neutral ground,” said Alex. “If you did, you’d really like him, I bet!”

“I don’t think so, baby. But it’s nice of you to say,” he said.

“Oh,” said Alex quietly. “All right. I mean you don’t have to like Ryland if you really don’t.”

“No, dude, it’s okay,” he said. “I know you want us to get along. He’s important to you. Which is why I’m so mad.”

“You don’t have to explain,” Alex sighed. “I just wish you were here.”

“I wish I were there too. Sadly the vestal virgins of Venus are harsh mistresses; they won’t wait for us to solve the problems of our personal lives before demanding scented oil rubdowns from Brian’s deadly yet talented hands.”

“Oh,” Alex said. He was trying not to sound jealous. He knew Danny wouldn’t cheat on him, now that they were together and had found true love. But he was also painfully aware of Danny’s past and how extensive it was. Sometimes he worried about being able to compete with it, to please him the way he really deserved. 

“Don’t worry. I merely watched. It was a fine payback after years of him watching me seduce so many fine, uncompromisingly gorgeous people. And stab them while I was in the middle of my wooing,” Danny added as a near afterthought.

“Oh man! Did you give them bandaids?”

“Graves are like bandaids, right?” asked Danny.

Automatically, Alex said, “well, if you think they are, then I’m sure they are.” 

“I hope you feel better,” Danny said.

“I really am,” said Alex. “Thank you so much for calling me.”

“Any time, babe . If things get worse – well, I’ll send you an Uber. We can work something out.”

“Aww, you don’t have to do that for me. It’s Ryland. We’ll be over this little fight soon enough.”

“Soon Enough” stretched out through two weeks of total silence, which was enough to get under Alex’s skin and make him feel a tad paranoid. He avoided making anything remotely resembling eye contact with Ryland; he became sugar and light again, slathering him with compliments like butter onto a biscuit.

But Ryland remained unreceptive to his reactions. He stayed stony. He disappeared with Ash whenever he could for long extended evenings and returned to shower and brush his teeth.

“It’s like being the mistress,” Danny told Alex, unable to make himself sound anything more than forlorn. “He visits you when he wants something.”

“Oh, that’s just looking at things the wrong way around!” insisted Alex. “He’s a really nice guy. He’s just…”

“Busy? Isn’t he always busy?” Danny asked. He was definitely angry now. Alex cringed away from the oncoming conflict between the two men he adored. 

“He has a rich social life! Just like I do,” he said. And his tone was overbright. He nervously started playing with his hair. He just wanted everyone to get along. Why was that such an impossible feat?

“I’m sorry, dude. I don’t’ want to drag you into the middle of this. I just um…care. A lot.” Danny coughed into his fist. He was clearly trying to keep it cool, though cool and Danny were two words that didn’t match together well. 

“Thank you. I appreciate it,” said Alex. And he really did. It was nice knowing that someone cared about him in a way that was meaningful and actually felt real. Danny’s first concern seemed to be Alex, and Alex had never experienced anything of that kind of heat before; certainly nothing as sentimental or sweet as a happily ever after carriage ride to the moon. But all of Danny’s energy was focused on him like a laser light, and it felt so good to writhe under the dreamy heat of his full focus.

“I’m going to be in town next weekend,” Danny said suddenly.

“Wait, really?” Alex perked up instantly. He’d assumed he wouldn’t see Danny until the winter fully passed. California made it harder to tell time by the seasons, but he’d faithfully crossed off every single day on his day calendar waiting for NSP to hit California again.

“I made a deal with Brian and he agreed to take care of this long-standing date we had with these bodybuilders if we could switch dates,” Danny said. “He agreed and bingo – easy peasy, here I come big old squeezy.”

“That sounds so unsanitary, but so sweet,” Alex sighed.

“Thank you,” Danny said. “I came up with that all by myself.”

Alex said. “I’ll be there to pick you up, I promise. I’ll send my own limo, and then you can show me around the neighborhood. Introduce me to all of your little friends, your favorite bars, your sex shops…”

“Only you, Danny,” Alex sighed. “I thought we could go to the big public garden, or maybe go to the zoo.”

Of course he was like this. He was Danny. He was sexually directed, which didn’t have to be a bad thing. He thought of sex the same way anyone else thought of stuffing a sandwich into their mouths; it was necessary, it sustained, it fed into how he felt about everything around him on top of being an important part of his personality. Alex was much shyer about sex than Danny, and it took a little more coaxing on Danny’s part to get him to open himself up – in more ways than one. In the end it was his own hang-ups that kept on lingering in the way. In the end it was Alex who had to get out of the way of his own head. But still he wanted more, hungered and thirsted for it. He wanted to hold hands in bars, take him to gaming tournaments – be in the front row at Danny’s concerts. He didn’t want to be the one-night stand, the groupie; he wanted to be the boyfriend. No matter how great being with him was - and Danny was inexplicable and wonderful – he needed something real. Alex didn’t want him to change, but he also wanted to be seen as a whole person.

“I haven’t been to the zoo in so long. I was banned a few years ago due to an unfortunate incident involving bananas, a very tall woman dressed as a tube of toothpaste, and the macaques exhibit…”

“If you don’t want to go, we don’t have to…”

“…They were throwing poop at me, it was a war of attrition…”

“Danny! You don’t have to explain your wildly checkered past to me. It’s just another part of you I find interesting,” he said.

“You think I’m interesting?” Danny asked.

“Of course!” All of the things Danny had done, all of the things he was going to be in the future or would be when Alex hung up the phone would be interesting. Not like Alex. Failed, sad, ordinary Alex.

“You’re so much more interesting than I am,” Danny said.

“What?” Alex sputtered. “But I’m just some guy. I’m just an ordinary dude who lucked into doing game stuff.”

“You’re a musician and a true poet. I won’t hear it said otherwise,” Danny said.

“Oh, Danny! That’s so sweet.” He sighed. “I’ve gotta go. I’ll see you next week.”

“You’ve got it baby. I’ll text when I get in town, OK?”

“I’ve got it. Hey…” ‘love you’ stuck in Alex’s throat. Saying it would endanger the spell they were both existing under. He didn’t want to risk it. “Thank you.”

“Thank you,” he said. “Night now.”

 

*** 

Alex was almost vibrating with excitement when the day finally came. He wore his best shirt, his nicest pants; he was combed and ready for his call.

“If he doesn’t show up in ten minutes,” said Ryland, “I’m going to leave for the streaming event without you.”

“He’ll show up.”

“That’s what Linus said about the Great Pumpkin.” Ryland pointed out. “That’s the problem with a guy like Danny.”

“Ryland, why are you complaining?” asked Alex. “This isn’t your relationship on the line.”

“No, but a guy like Danny doesn’t care about boundaries. What he cares about is trying to fuck everything he can get his hands on…” Alex frowned at him. “I’m just trying to protect you, man. A star like Danny isn’t like the rest of us.”

Alex’s phone rang. He picked it up and pressed it to his ear. “Hey baby,” Danny said. “I’m right up the street. Look out for the big blue limo that looks like a dick!”

“I will!” Alex’s heart was a butterfly, floating up his throat. He burst out the front door and waited patiently until Danny whipped around the corner, wearing a ruffled shirt with a blue tuxedo. He even had a walking stick and a top hat. He tipped the hat in Alex’s direction. “Sir,” he said.

Alex nearly knocked him over with the bear hug he delivered. “I thought I’d never see you. I knew you were coming but..it’s so different when I’m waiting for you. Sometimes I think that you’re never going to show up. Sometimes I think…” He grabbed Danny by the hair and kissed him soundly until he shut up.

Ninja Brian stood behind them, arms crossed over his chest, expression vaguely threatening. Ryland kept shooting Brian concerned looks but he made no motion towards the man – he could see the writing on the wall, and that was some super scary writing.

When Alex looked back over his shoulder, Ryland was staring at his own feet.

“Shall we go to dinner?” asked Alex. His smile was goofy and tender. Ryland yelped and rubbed his side as Ninja Brian put away a sai and stared at him, pretending that he hadn’t used his ribs as a temporary target. 

“I’m starving!” Danny said.

“I’m…well, I could use a bite,” said Ryland. He looked neither right nor left as he boarded the limousine, leaving Alex and Danny and Brian to pile in behind him, the former two so besotted with one another that they seemed not to notice the tension in the air.

***

Ryland’s eyes scrabbled along the interior of the limo during the short ride to the restaurant. “You like crushed velvet a lot, don’t you?” he asked, trying to keep his tone casual.

“It’s supremely sensual,” Danny said. “If I could roll dick first through any material, it would be this.”

“Ahah,” said Ryland, cringing.

“When we were together in his penthouse,” began Alex.

“Please don’t finish that sentence,” begged Ryland.

“I won’t,” said Alex. “I would never want to offend you! But I’m totally thinking it. In my mind.” And then he gave something close to a creepy smile as he rested his head against the back of the seat.

“So uh, Danny – what are your intentions when it comes to Alex?” Ryland asked. As if he were some kind of sitcom father and Alex were his prepubescent daughter headed out on her first date.

“Oh, I’m going to treat Alex right!” Danny said. “In fact, I’m going to ask him something special after dinner.”

Alex’s eyes turned into luminescent saucers. Ryland made a grumbling sound deep in his throat. Ninja Brian pulled out a pocket knife and began to flick it open and closed.

When the limo came to a stop, Ryland nearly bolted away from the whole group.

*** 

Dinner was expensive and overly large. Alex floated his way through it, slipping bites between Danny’s lips, giggling when his fingertips were nipped at.

When dessert arrived it was in the form of a gigantic cannoli loaded with chocolate cream.

He’d only dug halfway through the dish when he felt something hard between his lips. Spitting it out, there was something bright and shiny there.

When he looked up, Danny was on bended knee.

“Alex, I know this is sudden and we haven’t known one another for very long, but I love being around you, and I want to know what the next step feels like. So…would you become my writing partner and my live-in lover for all eternity?”

Alex squeaked and squealed like a kettle that had been put on high heat. “What?!” Ryland jumped up. “You dragged us out, staged this whole meal and you’re not even going to marry him?”

“But he gave me a ring!” Alex said.

“But you’re not getting married! It’s barely a commitment!” Ryland stared down Danny and Danny stared back. 

“Ryland, let me ask you a frank question – you decided to get on with your life and pretend that my boyfriend never had a part in yours. So why do you keep trying to keep him from being happy?”

Ryland sputtered. “I’m just looking out for him!”

“By using him? By treating him like shit? Dude, I’m beyond giving you the benefit of the doubt. At this point you need to nut up or shut up.”

“Please stop fighting…” Alex begged.

“Why does it have to be about Alex and what he’s feeling?” snapped Ryland. “Why doesn’t anyone care about me? Is he the only one allowed to be right?”

“No!” Danny said. “But he worked hard for the team! When we were together it was all he talked about! And to have you do that…” He shook his head.

Alex calmly stood up from the table. “I appreciate you both looking out for me,” he said. “But I think my place is with Danny.” 

Ryland made a couple of protesting complaining sounds, but Alex ignored them. He slid his fingers into Danny’s grip. 

Brian only punched Ryland on the way out the door , thankfully – a gesture that got the point across. 

*** 

“I should have packed some clothing on my way out,” Alex said.

“Hindsight is for pussies,” Danny said. The tour bus was rounding the bend onto the Pacific Coast highway – heading up to Portland. “We can pull off and turn around,” he said, just before they made the last turn. “It’s not too late.”

Alex took a moment to reflect on those words. Then he shook his head. “I want to be with you,” he said.

And the bus merged with the traffic surrounding it, taking Alex far away from Ryland, far away from his feelings of loss and being replaced. Maybe someday he’d call Ryland again.

But, he thought as he squeezed Danny’s hand, not yet.


End file.
